Love Hurts
by Lucinda
Summary: Willow and Cordelia discuss the resons why they dislike Valentines.  AU post season 6.


Author: Lucinda

rating: pg 13?

main characters: Willow, Cordelia (Friendship/bonding story, #8 on QPC)

Quickie Challenge: http/quickie. I do not hold any legal rights to the show or characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The lyrics are to the song "Love Hurts", performed by Joan Jett (and numerous other people that I can't name offhand). I own no legal rights to it.

Distribution: WLS, NHA, Bite Me please? anyone else ask first.

set after season 6, slightly AU. Willow did not return to Sunnydale. She is in LA with Angel & Co. Probably very AU for Angel the Series.

Willow had agreed that Giles was right, she couldn't stay in England forever, 'healing' from her ordeal. She would have to return to life, to fighting darkness and evil. But she'd convinced him not to make her go back to Sunnydale. The fact that nobody except Dawn and Spike had ever truly been okay with the relationship between her and Tara made it that much harder for her to believe they would be sympathetic to her pain, especially since nobody had really been there for her when Oz had left.

That was why she'd returned to America, joining Angel and his groups of followers in Los Angeles. The basic fact that everyone else had made some big mistakes, most obviously Angel the formerly evil vampire, should make it easier for her to seek redemption there. It wasn't exactly a smooth beginning, but she hadn't expected everything to be smooth, calm and without a few 'you shouldn't have done that's. Cordelia had ended up a Queen in an alternate dimension called Pylea for a while before causing the overthrow of the government and extensive social chaos. Gunn had belonged to a group of near obsessive demon hunters. Wesley... he blamed himself for Faith's slide into darkness, his shattered relationship with Virginia, and the near kidnapping of Angel's son Conner.

Oh yes, Angel had a son. Some evil lawyers had resurrected Darla, had her seduce Angel in an effort to unleash Angelus, and while he still had his soul, somehow, Darla had ended up pregnant with his baby. Yeah, there was a bit of faltering from the path of redemption there.

"I hate February." Cordelia's voice had just a hint of whine to it, and a generous helping of sulk.

Willow looked at her, knowing immediately what Cordelia really meant. "You hate Valentine's Day. Because you haven't got a guy."

Cordelia dropped onto the couch with Willow. "What's the problem with that? The whole point is to show off having somebody willing to spend money on you and make anyone who hasn't got someone feel like complete slime. That's no fun from the single side of the equation."

"Why don't you have someone? You're Cordelia Chase, remember?" Willow was a bit curious. Yes, Cordelia had changed since high school, changed a lot actually. But she was still beautiful, confident and with sharp fashion sense.

Cordelia pulled one leg up, wrapping her arm around her knee. "Men are evil. I had Doyle, and then he got all nobly self sacrificing and died. I thought maybe this other guy, but he just wanted to impregnate me with his master's demon spawn. Gunn has the hots for Fred, Wesley and I don't work, Angel... there's that whole clause AND he doesn't see me like that, and as for Groo... he doesn't get the concept of Romance. And we didn't work together anyhow. Men suck."

Willow gave a small nod. "I know what you mean. For years, the one guy I used to pray would notice me didn't, then when I had someone else, he noticed me and caused pain and suffering to everyone around us. Oz... romance wasn't his thing AND he ran away from me. Went off to find his inner wolf or something. There could have been something with Graham, but... nothing. No sparks, no interest. I thought maybe Spike, I mean, have you seen those cheekbones? But he just wanted Buffy. You're right, men suck."

"Isn't that the truth... aren't there songs about that?" Cordelia's eyes were filled with sorrow as she ran her dark maroon nails over her cocoa colored pants. "I think I like the one by Joan Jett. Love Hurts."

Nodding slightly, Willow closed her eyes, her voice soft as she sang some of the lyrics. "Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars, Any heart not tough, nor strong enough To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain, Love is like a cloud holds a lot of rain, Love hurts, love hurts" Opening her eyes again, she looked at her friend. "That does sum things up, doesn't it?"

Cordelia was staring at her. "I didn't know you could sing. Why didn't I know that you could sing? If you can sing, what about the school talent show?"

Willow groaned as she remembered the fiasco of the talent show. "I can sing, just not in front of people. I have stage fright, although it isn't as bad as it used to be."

Cordelia shrugged, apparently willing to let the topic of stage fright go for now. "Yeah, but she had it dead right. Love leads to pain and suffering. Maybe I should just give up on men altogether."

"I tried that. Remember hearing about Tara? That didn't work either." Willow found herself rubbing her fingers over a thin spot on the knee of her jeans. "Trying to date women sucks too."

Cordelia nodded. "Yeah... I do remember hearing a bit about that. Seems Buffy flipped. So, men suck. Women suck. Demons suck. Love sucks. We just can't win."

"Basically." Willow's voice was devoid of her usual optimism. "You know, I've never even had a nice Valentine's day? Nobody's sent me flowers, or chocolates, or... well, anything."

Cordelia looked at her friend, a small frown on her face. "What about Oz?"

"Nope. He dedicated one of the Dingos' usual songs to me on their performance, but... no flowers, no candy, no card. Oz sucked. I was the one who gave Tara flowers... then she got all worried about me using too much magic. You're right, Valentine's sucks."

"We sound pretty pathetic, don't we?" Cordelia's voice was low, and it was entirely obvious that she hated anything about her life being described as 'pathetic'.

"Yeah. So... do you think we could maybe beg, borrow, or steal some chocolate and hole up in a room to watch chick flicks?" Willow's voice was a bit hesitant, as if she wasn't really certain that would help.

Cordelia gave a small shrug. "That could work. Do we want the ones filled with misery and angst, or something happier?"

"How about something with cute, unattainable guys that we could pretend for just a little unrealistic while would like us?" There was a definite wistful note in Willow's words.

So they left to have a night of gorging on chocolate, painting nails, and watching movies with cute guys in and out of their clothing. It was a night composed of equal parts female bonding and escapism. They dragged themselves into the office at nearly noon, ignoring the baffled looks from Wesley.

Neither one of them was prepared for the sight of their office areas. Cordelia's had a large rectangular box of chocolates tied shut with a deep red velvet ribbon, and a bouquet of dark red roses. Willow's desk held a bouquet of pale amber roses mixed with red tipped white roses, and a note saying 'Never forget that you are loved.'

Her soft whisper of 'Maybe Valentines doesn't entirely suck.' caused a faint smile from the one person who could hear her. In his dark office, Angel continued shuffling a few papers, figuring that it would be safe now to rest. She had her flowers. Maybe someday, he could manage to let her know how he felt. In the meantime, he could wonder who had sent Cordelia flowers.

end Love Hurts.


End file.
